Jun 6 1985
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NASA was still evaluating data submitted by four companies in response to its request for responses on the possibility of opening a second source for Space Shuttle solid-fuel rocket motors (SRM), Aerospace Daily reported. Those responding were Hercules, Aerojet Strategic Propulsion, United Technologies' Chemical Systems Division, and Atlantic Research Corp. NASA also had a proposal from Morton Thiokol, the current sole-source producer, and would not make a final decision until later in the month.
In April Jesse Moore, NASA associate administrator for spaceflight, told the House appropriations HUD and independent agencies subcommittee that he expected to "have a review of the assessment sometime in the early part of May" and that in the interim NASA would proceed with the next buy of SRMs from Morton Thiokol. Agency officials expected it would take about four years to qualify a second source and "get them up to speed." NASA Administrator James Beggs would make the final decision on whether to open a second source for SRMs. A NASA official said he thought there was "a good possibility" that Beggs would have the needed information to make "a decision by the end of this month." (A/D, June 6/85, 1)
The USSR launched at 10:40 a.m. Moscow time today the Soyuz T-13 carrying cosmonauts Col. Vladimir Dzhanibekov, mission commander and a veteran of four previous space missions, and Viktor Savinykh for a rendezvous with the Salyut 7 space station in the first Soviet manned launch in nearly a year, the Washington Times quoted the official news agency Tass as saying. By late evening, Soyuz T-13, fitted with new flight controls, was in an orbit ranging from 203 to 182 miles above earth.
On June 8 the Soyuz spacecraft docked with the space station using the new flight controls and an onboard computer in the Soviet program's first known manual docking. The time between launch from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and the rendezvous with Salyut 7 was twice as long as in previous Soviet space missions, leading observers to believe the time was spent testing the new flight controls.
In the past, personnel on the ground and automated onboard systems controlled Soviet spacecraft docking with Salyut stations, while cosmonauts on board simply monitored the operation. But since there had been aborted dockings in recent years, the Soviets might have given more control to Dzhanibekov.
The Salyut space station had been mothballed since the previous October when three Russians returned to earth after 237 days in space, a record. (W Times, June 7/85, 7A; NYT, June 8/85, 4; W Post, June 9/85, A27)
Scientists from China's Ministry of Astronautics announced the previous week plans to improve the design of their existing rockets so they could launch heavier satellites into geostationary orbits, thus challenging the western nations' domination of commercial exploitation of space, the New Scientist reported.
China had a rocket that could put 750-kg communications satellites into geostationary orbit, which they used the previous year to launch their first such satellite. Jean Vandenkerckhove of the European Space Agency (ESA) said the rocket made "Chinese launch capability equivalent to Europe's Ariane 3 rocket." China's rocket, the Long March 3, had two liquid-fuel stages and one cryogenic stage fuelled by liquid hydrogen and oxygen. Chinese engineers said they planned to add extra boosters to allow them to put heavier loads, possibly two satellites, into space. The engineers also spoke of plans to develop a cryogenic upper stage for the rocket that could launch 2.5-ton satellites 35,000 km high into geostationary orbit. That would give China a capability close to that of Ariane 4, Europe's newest rocket. However, Wu Ke Li, in charge of Chinese interest at the Paris Air Show where China for the first time had an exhibit, would not confirm or deny the plans.
Western engineers were impressed by China's existing ability because Long March 3 placed their satellite into correct orbit without flight tests, since China could not afford such tests. Instead, the Chinese relied on elaborate space simulators for checking satellites and launch components.
Vandenkerckhove said China's launch facilities were at a disadvantage compared with Ariane because the compartment for satellites on Long March 3 was smaller than on Ariane 3, measuring 2.3 m rather than 2.9 m. However, Yi Zluo Hyang, one of the Long March 3 designers, said, "Our launch costs will be lower than any other service, partly because we have lower labor costs, but also because we will be supported by the government." During the past year, China had signed cooperative agreements in space science and technology with the U.S., W. Germany, France, and Britain; and they were pursuing an interest in remote-sensing satellites. (New Scientist, June 6/85, 4)
NASA announced that its Deep Space Network (DSN), as part of a French-led international tracking network, would track the first of two international balloon experiments carried aboard the Soviet VEGA spacecraft to study beginning June 10 Venus's atmosphere. The VEGA 1 and 2 spacecraft each would drop an instrumented lander and an instrument-laden balloon into the Venusian atmosphere as they approached the planet on their way to a March 1986 rendezvous with Halley’s Comet.
After reaching the equatorial regions of Venus's atmosphere, the balloons would float free in the middle, most active, layer of Venus's three-tiered clouds. The flight plan called for the entry packages, consisting of the atmospheric balloon and a lander, to plunge from a 125-km (78 miles) to a 65-km (40 miles) altitude, where a parachute would deploy. The lander would separate from the balloon at 63 km (39 miles) and head for the surface. The balloon would then inflate and carry its instrument package through the atmosphere at an altitude of 55 km (34 miles) for more than two days.
NASA’s Deep Space Network and other stations around the world would use a technique called very long baseline interferometry to measure the balloon's velocity, and therefore the wind velocity, with a precision of about 3 km (2 miles) per hour at Venus's about 108 million-km (67 million miles) distance from earth. A Soviet internal network would also track the balloons.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory was cooperating with the French National Space Agency (CNES), Paris, in the tracking activity. Scientists believed data from the balloons would further their understanding of Venus's complex weather system. (NASA Release 85-87)
NASA announced it selected Aerojet ElectroSystems Co. to negotiate a cost-plus-award-fee contract for three advanced microwave sounding units-A for flight aboard National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) spacecraft. The contract work statement called for development and delivery of flight instruments and associated ground support equipment as well as instrument/spacecraft integration and test support.
The contract, with an estimated value of $29 million, would take effect about November 11 and continue for 51 months. (NASA Release 85-88)
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